I would like to thank Sarah from Titan Books for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Titan

Published - Out Now

Price - £16.99 hardcover £6.99 Kindle eBook

After years of seeing her sisters suffer at the hands of an abusive prince, Marra—the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter—has finally realized that no one is coming to their rescue. No one, except for Marra herself.

Seeking help from a powerful gravewitch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a prince—if she can complete three impossible tasks. But, as is the way in tales of princes, witches, and daughters, the impossible is only the beginning.

On her quest, Marra is joined by the gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the prince and frees Marra's family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last.

Reading fantasy you are often conscious of the various recurring elements that stories use. The forest that hides its secrets; the youngest son always gets the adventures and perhaps most common women do not cross any lines we impose upon you. As time passes various writers get to play with these elements and create new and impressive stories. There are of course the retellings but another rich stream in fantasy are the writers who take these elements and give us new stories playing on the riffs but perhaps with unexpected outcomes. In T Kingfisher’s excellent novel Nettle and Bone, we get a brilliant tale that uses various familiar elements but creates something dark, unique, hopeful, and probably one of my favourite novels of the year.

Marra is the youngest of three princesses for a fairly small harbour kingdom. Her first sister Damia wed the Northern Prince Vorling to seal a treaty between two kingdoms but then she died unexpectedly from an apparent fall. Her second sister Kania is then married to renew the partnership and Marra is required to void any political entanglements to stay in a nunnery. Over the next fifteen years Marra grows wiser to the ways of the world and realises that Kania is married to a violent controlling and abusive husband who also happens to be very powerful and under the protection of a ancient fairy godmother’s blessing. Her hope to free Kania lies with the mysterious guardians of the graveyards who know how to talk and learn the secrets of the dead - the dust-wives.  After three impossible tasks are set Marra gets one of the most powerful dust-wives to come with her on a mission that will also include a killer with a death wish and a truly terrible fairy godmother plus a chicken possessed by a demon.

There is so much to love in this story and also be hugely impressed by. Firstly, the tonal shifts in the story are amazingly well handled. From the off where we get an eerie scene of Marra creating a dog from bones we realise this is not a wholly cosy tale and indeed as we quickly get walked through Marra and her sister’s lives we see a tale that hints at dark undercurrents. Here fairy tale kingdoms can be cruel, brutal, and unjust as we meet various magical entities from a drowned boy to a sinister fair market where we sense the magic is wild and the unwary can be trapped. And yet…always within a few pages there will be a scene of joy, a moment of warmth and humanity or plain daftness (yes, the demonic chicken plays a role) that keeps us from despairing. You don’t know what the story will do next, and the way Kingfisher has plotted these highs and lows is perfectly delivered. It’s a dark and terrifying world but good people doing their best for others should always win out.

The main characters in this story are also pleasantly three dimensional. With Marra we don’t get a teenage but a young woman in her thirties who has gone from palaces to tending the sick and in particular women who need to give birth and has learnt how cruel and dangerous the world can be. Kind, self-doubting and yet when she realises the horrible things Prince Vorling has done, she knows she needs to act because no one else will even though she isn’t a warrior or a witch. What really impresses me is how Marra never gives in or gives up – creating a living dog out of bones or weaving with stinging nettle she is prepared to sacrifice everything for her sister. She also starts to realise she is far more happier being herself than the roles she has been given to play which gives her a fresh aspect on life too.

That is what brings around her other travelling characters. In the place of magical companion, we get the unusual Dust-witch (no other name needed!) who while we know if very powerful has a mix of humour and grumpiness that makes her a really interesting character who can easily steal a scene especially when she talks to her demonic chicken. We also get Fenris a noble man haunted by his own mistakes and Agnes we have Marra’s own fairy godmother who … isn’t all that great at blessings.  There is an well-handled recurring theme of characters who have chosen to be trapped by their own set limitations – be they by family, sense of honour or sense of fear of what they could do. The key theme though is you can learn to move on from these self-imposed prisons and by doing things for others may help you find some freedom of your own. Its also great where a story is not about saving the world but saving someone from a violent and evil man makes the stakes actually feel far higher as we know any day now that the Prince’s temper could get out of control once again.

The story’s pace is brisk, constantly moving and changing location and mood. Again, we get familiar fantasy concepts, but Kingfisher adjusts them to make them more realistic. Here the nunnery isn’t just a religious order, but we see people who tend the sick and are wiser to the issues women in particular face. A fairy market is a beautifully strange, weird encounter that just is without any explanation with its many human, and non-human inhabitants playing their own games; and then a final set piece moves close to the world of horror with a trip into the Northern Kingdom’s catacombs where the spirits of the dead need facing. One issue with retellings is that we often know what is to come and here we get a story where while the landscape is often semi-familiar the destination and final outcome is not.

Nettle and Bone is a brilliant human story that has constantly changing shades of light and dark to chill and make us smile but like all the best fantasy it also makes you think. A reminder we can’t have a unjust world where women are just treated as prizes and objects to be controlled and that sometimes this needs fighting for and if no one else is doing it you have to step up yourself however hard that will be. I absolutely loved this book and it reminded me of the Discworld’s approach to fantasy in all the best ways. I think you know you need to read this. Go get it it!